Meals on Wheels Fur Dogs and Cats

Only in East Texas

KETK, the Tyler Texas NBC affilliate posted this story this past week.  A new nonprofit charity has been organized in East Texas to provide food for pets belonging to elderly folk.  Dubbed "Meals Fur Pets", the organization is mostly volunteers and works with Meals on Wheels to deliver pet food to elderly folk along with their meals on wheels lunches. 


Somebody figured out that seniors with pets are healthier and live longer than those that don't.  They also figured out that some seniors were sharing their meals on wheels with their pets because they either couldn't afford pet food or couldn't get to the store to buy it.  In short order, a new program was organized and began collecting donated pet food and distributing it to seniors through Meals on Wheels.


This is a lovely idea. Meals on Wheels is already delivering food to seniors.  Throwing on a few bags of puppy kibble and kitty chow isn't a problem and the benefits for seniors is huge. This kind of projects is one of the reasons I believe that private sector charity is more humane than government charity. If this had been done by the government....

1. It never would have been done, especially in East Texas which is hard shell conservative and no friend to the folks in DC.  Our Congressman, Louis Gohmert is a perpetual thorn in the liberal side up there.
2. It would have taken an act of congress to get approved and two years to get the enabling legislation through committee.
3. There would have been a three million dollar rider attached to the bill providing funding for the Barney Frank Center for Alternative Lifestyles.
4. It would have required 300,000 new federal workers to administer and 60% of the budget would have been "admin costs".
5. There would have been 25 pounds of paperwork required to even qualify for the program.
6. You'd have had to prove you belonged to a minority, were an illegal alien, refugee, were disabled or a registered Democrat to be eligible.
7. You'd have had to be able to get into town to the Office of Companion Pet Food Distribution because the website would be beyond the average seniors capacity to locate on the Internet.
8. You would have had to wait for six hours in the waiting area at the OCPFD before a surly little man took your 25 pounds of paperwork and set an appointment for you to return in 3 weeks for an evaluation of your application.
9. The program would not be promoted or advertised for fear that the program would be flooded and the government would not have enough funds to insure that everyone approved received services.
10. Finally, you'd have had to prove your dog or cat was a registered Democrat in good standing. 
    

Instead a bunch of volunteers put the whole thing together in a few weeks, found a way to distribute the food, store the food and collect the food and just started doing it.  No permission needed.  They get tons of corporate support from local food store chains and distributors.  People buy pet food and leave it in collection barrels at stores, churches, schools and community centers.

And that's how conservatives solve a problem!  Hey, even East Texas liberals get in on the act too. We know how to work together, we Texans.  Makes me proud to be a Texan.

Tom King (c) 2013